Donald Trump sweeps Michigan's Republican caucuses

Grand Rapids — Former President Donald Trump dominated the Michigan Republican Party's caucus elections Saturday, winning all 39 delegates that were up for grabs, with his supporters saying the state GOP, which has suffered from divisions in recent months, was united behind him.

The caucuses, which had a theme of "up from the ashes," took place inside the Amway Grand Plaza in Grand Rapids amid a bitter internal feud among Republicans in the state. The gatherings had the power to decide how to allocate 39 of Michigan's 55 delegates to the Republican national convention in Milwaukee in July.

Tuesday's presidential primary awarded the other 16 delegates. Trump got about 68% of the vote in the primary, meaning he won 12 of the 16 delegates while former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley scored four delegates with 27% of the vote.

Trump performed much better in the caucuses, where hundreds of Republican activists and insiders from across the state gathered to weigh in on the presidential race. There were 13 congressional districts caucuses. Each could award three delegates.

If a candidate got a majority of the vote in a district's caucus, the candidate got all three delegates.

Trump got from 90% of the vote to 100% in every caucus. In the 1st, 3rd, 9th and 10th congressional districts, Trump got all of the votes cast for a candidate. It was a showing of his strength within the Michigan Republican Party, despite losing the 2020 presidential election and facing an onslaught of prosecutions, some of which were tied to his efforts to overturn the election's outcome.

Kristy Whitson of Monroe County wore a T-shirt with a collage of photos of Trump on it for the caucuses. The country has been shifting to the left, and Trump is the only person that can right it, she contended.

"Do I like his personality? No. Do I like his attitude? No," Whitson said. "But business wise, he had the country moving."

Across all 13 caucuses, 1,575 delegates, 98%, voted for Trump on Saturday, and 36, 2%, voted for Haley, according to unofficial tallies tracked by the party.

Trump narrowly won Michigan in the general election against Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 on his way to the White House, but he lost the state in 2020 to Democrat Joe Biden in his unsuccessful reelection bid.

Michigan is likely to be among a handful of states that decide which party wins the presidency in November.

Trump and Biden are on course to face off in a rematch. Pete Hoekstra, chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, said the results showed the GOP "is united behind Donald Trump."

For about six months, the Michigan Republican Party has been ravaged by a leadership feud between supporters of former Chairwoman Kristina Karamo and her critics who voted to remove her during a meeting of the GOP's state committee on Jan. 6.

Karamo said the Jan. 6 meeting was illegitimate, but a Kent County Circuit Court Judge J. Joseph Rossi ruled on Tuesday that she had been removed and she could no longer assert that she was still the party's chairwoman.

"I think it's going to go fine," Hoeksta said at the start of Saturday's caucuses. "We're putting together the framework to beat Joe Biden. People should be upbeat and they should be excited about that."

'Ready to move on'

Many Republicans said on Saturday that they hoped the work of trying to unseat Biden would unite their party. Saturday's caucuses were relatively low on drama, something that can't be said about the last six months within the Michigan GOP.

Some Michigan Republicans who support Karamo attended alternative caucus gatherings in Houghton Lake and Battle Creek on Saturday. But Dan Hartman, who served as Karamo's general counsel, was at the caucuses in Grand Rapids.

He declined to answer a reporter's questions. Asked why he wouldn't be interviewed, Hartman replied simply "because."

While some signs carried at the caucuses described Hoekstra as an "imposter," many of the caucuses played out without major disputes.

"We needed something to do," said Meshawn Maddock, former co-chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party.

"Even the people who are mad, they're ready to move on," Maddock said. "They want to work hard. And Trump gives us all something to do."

Maddock said she spoke with Trump in recent days and he will be in Michigan "a lot," possibly once every four to six weeks, in the months before the Nov. 5 presidential election.

Closer to nomination

State Rep. Bryan Posthumus, R-Rockford, said Trump is "absolutely" going to be the party's nominee in November.

"There's no question about that," Posthumus said. "It's time for people to rally around and unite behind one person and take out Joe Biden."

Posthumus was an early supporter of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who dropped out of the presidential race in January.

Haley is the last Republican candidate challenging Trump for the party's nomination. She's argued that Trump can't win the general election because of independent voters and some Republicans who won't support him.

"If Donald Trump is the candidate, Republicans will once again lose the election," Haley said during a campaign stop in Michigan on Monday. "We'll lose the swing states. We'll lose the House. We'll lose the Senate."

But state Sen. Jonathan Lindsey, R-Allen, disagreed with Haley's analysis.

"The party is different under Trump than it is under other candidates," Lindsey said.

"He has a lot more appeal to a very broad working class sentiment, people who believe that the Republican Party can become more of the party of the working class, regardless of anything else," Lindsey said. "He also resonates with a lot of people who are against the forever wars, the nonsense overseas.

"And he has the strong resonance with people on the topic of illegal immigration."

cmauger@detroitnews.com